Julien Orts is a physicist and biophysicist whose research sits at the intersection of structural biology, NMR spectroscopy, and drug discovery. After earning his Ph.D. jointly from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and EMBL under Profs. Griesinger and Carlomagno, he developed INPHARMA, a method that uses NMR to experimentally validate how small molecules bind to proteins—now used in pharma and academia, especially for challenging targets like GPCRs.

As a postdoc and junior group leader at ETH Zurich in Prof. Riek’s lab, he co-developed the exact NOE (eNOE) technique, which dramatically increased the accuracy of NMR distance restraints and allowed researchers to resolve protein structures and dynamics at atomic precision—even in large complexes. He also invented NMR², the first fully automated method for determining protein–ligand complex structures from solution NMR data. This approach fills a gap in NMR structural biology by providing a parallel to molecular replacement used in X-ray crystallography.

Now Associate Professor and Scientific Director of the NMR Facility at the University of Vienna, Julien leads a lab focused on structure-based drug design, fragment screening, protein allostery, and biophysical characterization of molecular interactions. He also leads research aimed at the development of molecular probes for neurodegenerative diseases, combining computational design and experimental validation.

Julien is a recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant, along with Structural Funds for the acquisition of high-end research equipment, supporting his continued development of cutting-edge NMR-based approaches in biomedical research.

Julien is passionate about pushing the boundaries of what NMR can do in modern drug discovery—and about mentoring the next generation of scientists to do the same.

Nicolas Coudevylle studied Biochemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Lille (France) and earned his PhD in Biomolecular NMR from the National School of Chemistry in Nancy (France).

He completed his first postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen (Germany), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Christian Griesinger.

He then joined the Max F. Perutz Laboratories at the University of Vienna, working initially with Prof. Robert Konrat and later with Prof. Sascha Martens.

In 2022, he became part of the newly established Group of Assoc. Prof. Julien Orts at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Vienna.

His research focuses on elucidating the molecular, structural, and dynamic determinants of protein–ligand interactions.

Completing my masters in Biochemistry (University of Chemistry and Technology Prague), PhD in structural biology using NMR (University of Zurich, Prof. Oliver Zerbe), postdoc periods at the University of Oulu in computational/theoretical NMR (Prof. Juha Vaara), medical MRI (Ass. Prof Timo Liimatainen), experimental NMR (Prof. Ville-Veikko Telkki), I have knowledge in these fields, with particular expertise in:
NMR modeling and interpretation using spin dynamics (for spectra simulation,  chemical exchange effects, NMR relaxation),  molecular modeling including (polarizable) forcefield development, quantum chemistry to obtain e.g. chemical shifts including paramagnetic effects, J-couplings, hyperfine couplings.
I use Python to implement custom tasks in these fields.

In the BioNMR research group of  Assoc. Prof. Julien Orts, my tasks range mostly from measurements to interpretations and modeling of NMR data and molecular structures.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiri-mares-vienna/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jiri-Mares-8

CV (pdf)

Since June 2024, Micael S. Silva has been a Postdoctoral Researcher in Prof. Julien Orts' group at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Vienna. He has been previously abroad in Dr. Rina Rosenzweig's group, working on chaperone interactions with substrates using advanced NMR techniques at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. In December 2021, MS received a PhD in Molecular Biosciences guided by Prof. Eurico Cabrita from NOVA University of Lisbon, focusing on protein stability and thermodynamics by NMR and other biophysical techniques using salts and ionic liquids. He graduated from the same university with a biochemistry and bioorganic chemistry degree. He founded the Young Portuguese Biophysicists - an affiliated group of the Portuguese Biophysics Society.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/micaels/
https://x.com/Micael_S_Silva

Guneet Singh Tarang joined the group as a PhD student in October 2023. He completed his master's degree at IISER Pune, India, with a focus on molecular life sciences. His research leverages innovative NMR techniques developed within the group to investigate the thermodynamic stability of proteins, using the WW domain as a model system. Through this work, Guneet aims to achieve an atomic-level understanding of the interactions that underpin protein stability.

Florian Wolf

After completing my master’s in Computational Science, I joined the Julien Orts' Lab for my master’s thesis in Physics. My work focuses on the theoretical framework of our project, where I investigate the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of protein folding and protein ligand binding. Specifically, I explore how state approximations (two-state or three-state reaction/folding) influence the a priori error in entropy and enthalpy measurements, aiming to develop new models and approaches for studying fundamental protein properties using NMR.

Beyond theory, I have a strong interest in simulation, coding, and especially machine learning. I am currently developing a machine learning model to derive protein structures from NMR data, exploring new and faster ways to extract structural insights.

If you're interested in collaborating or joining my projects, feel free to reach out!

Verena Mimmler is a Master Student at the University of Vienna, she is currently doing her Master thesis in Bio-NMR.

Carmen Baumgartner

My Name is Carmen Baumgartner and I'm currently pursuing my Master's degree in Molecular Biology. Since May 2025, I’ve been working on my master’s thesis in the Orts' Lab, focusing on Bio Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (Bio-NMR) spectroscopy.
I've always been fascinated by structural biology and how we can explore the architecture of biomolecules at the atomic level.

Matthias Bütikofer

Located at ETH Zurich

Colin Schmoll

Janina Kaderli

Former PhD student at ETHZ Zurich

Aditya Pokharna

Former PhD student at ETH Zurich

Former Master Student

Project assistant from March 2022 to June 2022

Erasmus Intern March 2022 to August 2022

Elif Sıla Erciyas

Erasmus Intern, June 2022 to September 2022